Sole Provider: Thirty Years of Nike Basketball [Hardcover]

Robert "Scoop" Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2002

Designed with Nike's trademark visually gripping graphics, Sole Provider: Thirty Years of NIKE Basketball is a collection of Nike hoop shoes and the subculture that surrounds them. Text by Slam magazine editor-at-large Robert "Scoop" Jackson, Sole Provider gives the inside story of NIKE Basketball - from its inception in 1972 to its incredible success as the basketball brand with over 60% market share.

Featuring anecdotal facts and figures, inside interviews with NBA players, Nike footwear designers, musicians, and other pop-culture notables, Sole Provider showcases the historical context of the game with exclusive images from Nike's archives: posters, print advertisements, commercial stills, behind-the-scenes footage, NBA photos, and never-before-published images. Features spreads that illustrate the development of the most pivotal shoes during this period, as well as interviews with designers and drawings of their prototypes; Features the key shoes and the players associated with them including: The Blazer (George "Iceman" Gervin), The Bruin (Moses Malone), The Air Force I (Michael Ray Richardson), The Air Jordan (Michael Jordan), The Alpha Force (Charles Barkley), and many more. Features never-before-published images - as well as insights - from the Nike archives of iconic NBA players including Moses Malone, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Jason Kidd, among others. Features still from famous advertising campaigns by Wieden & Kennedy featuring Nike alumni including Spike Lee, Bugs Bunny, Steve Martin, Godzilla, and Lil' Penny, among others. Index pages provide an at-a-glance look at all the shoes produced. Features a chronological history of the Nike and NBA partnership over three decades. Features the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association.)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert "Scoop" Jackson is the editor-at-large at Slam magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; 1st edition (November 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576871614
• ISBN-13: 978-1576871614
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great addition to a collection, December 3, 2002

By 

"kixologist" (Olympia, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sole Provider: Thirty Years of Nike Basketball (Hardcover)

I gave this book to my boyfriend for his birthday. He collects shoes, mostly nike. He saw an ad in one of his basketball magazines for this book and didn't just want it, he NEEDED it. He got the book and couldn't put it down. He also wanted to see a picture of the new Jordan's coming out in 2003 and was disappointed when they weren't in the book. But he took off the hard back cover protector and saw that it is on the hard cover. He was very excited and thought that was pretty cool how they tried to keep it on the downlow. The book also has drawings of the shoes before they become final, it is neat to see how the evolve into the final shoe. All in all great layout and a great book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A MUST for any sneaker fiend, March 5, 2003

By 

Peter Tulupman (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sole Provider: Thirty Years of Nike Basketball (Hardcover)

If you are a sneaker fiend this book is a must.

Scoop Jackson does a great job documenting the history of Nike's basketaball sneakers. Its mainly a picture book, which is pretty good for reference and features, in addition to photos of just about every Nike basketball sneaker ever produced, classic posters and athlete photos.

If you are looking for a comprehensive biography of Nike's history in this field, this isn't the book for you

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Advertising at My Expense, December 2, 2002

By 

Someone who just spent $$$ to look at a Nike ad. (Carlsbad, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sole Provider: Thirty Years of Nike Basketball (Hardcover)

As a former alumni of Nike in the days before it became industrialized, I looked forward to hearing a recounting of the stories behind the shoes, the athletes and the marketing. What the book provides is a catalog of self congratulatory comments and in some cases outright distortions (first Air Jorday in 1986?). Obviously "award winning journalist" Mr. Robert "Scoop" Jackson has found it profitable to become a copywriter from Phil Knight's revisionist history (The Pro Club...balled with Phil Knight...!?!)

Buy the book if you want to support Knight's efforts to make himself look good in your eyes, in the eyes of his Stepford employees and those of the real ball players who don't seem to mind being conned. The cover says that all of the "Net Profits" from the book will be donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs. I trust that there will be no "net profits" from this little marketing gimick and the the only legacy of this book with be a bit more backslapping around the "world campus" on the part of a bunch of yuppies getting rich from anointing each other as "Icon" of design.